Readers understand places like America or Russia better when they have read its literature. I also gain more knowledge when I read classical literature because many stories are based on history. Studying history suddenly becomes exciting when I look at the past through the vibrant characters in these stories. To be honest, I prefer historical fiction the best because seeing all the characters battle against terrible circumstances is very motivating. Knowing that there are people in worse situations helps me be more positive in my everyday life.
These novels have great passages that have inspired me. Reading classic novels has also improved my overall vocabulary and writing skills because writers from an older time period have unique styles of writing.
These great pieces of work taught me old English and grammar. Reading classic literature teaches us life lessons through human history. Classics majors have some of the highest GRE scores and have along with math majors the highest success rate in law school. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, Classics majors and double-majors have a better chance of getting into medical school than science majors.
Our students have gone on to graduate programs in Classics, anthropology, archaeology, history, and public policy as well as to law school, medical and dental school, and teacher credential programs. Careers after Classics Explore the Careers of Humanities Alumni to learn what humanities majors from Stanford have pursued since People Faculty Staff Graduate Students. Connect Facebook.
Location Department of Classics. Stanford, CA Campus Map. Contact Us Phone: classics [at] stanford [dot] edu. Nigel was a believer in eugenics before Hitler and the Holocaust cast a negative light on the theory and trialed an experiment to create the ultimate colony, however his wife had a hereditary illness and he did not want to have children because they would be tainted.
Reading books set in historical time opens up the realities and politics of the era, so we can grow as humans and reflect on our past. The definition of a classic, according to the author is something that has universal application and relevance. Works that stand the test of time, that teach meaningful truths with timeless appeal are one way that the past can communicate with the future.
We will not maintain the advantage of progress if we neglect the understanding that brought it about. Great article — well written; succinct, to the point and informative. This, along with some of the other claims made in the article, are really just opinion, rather than evidence-based or substantiated by empirical study.
All, in all, though; I was entertained and engaged sufficiently to read the whole article, and this in itself is proof that the writing was of a high quality and that the argument made in the article was sufficiently supported and outlined.
Interesting food for thought. I like this article — especially the bit about how the classics are the greatest conversations that have taken place through history.
Well done. Thank you for this article. As a teacher candidate, I pushed learning the classics for a lot of the reasons you mentioned I majored in and taught English. I still stand by those reasons, but wonder now how the canon of classics will evolve in the next years or so.
Will The Help become a cornerstone of the ever-evolving and ongoing civil rights conversation? A great discussion and an interesting topic to be considering. There are a number of debates that also raise issues related to the selection of the classics from a number of views: feminism, post-colonial and socio-cultural considerations.
Is universality enough? Who gets to decide what constitutes a classic? And what gives that person, or body of people, the right? Why not read the classics touted by a foreign, minority, philosophical, or pop culture? LGBT classics, Southeast Asian classics, feminist classics, African American classics, science fiction classics — the list goes on and on…. But by the standards of the cultures representative of those classics, I doubt the classics celebrated in Western academia are either.
With William Shakespeare, there are various interpretations of his works which makes them among other classics so enjoyable to read, watch and analyze. I have discovered that in reading the classics I gain a better understanding of the topics at hand than I do via third-person analysis of the book itself. Especially with regards to textbooks; there is more information per page than the condensed narrative the modern interpretation puts forth; one also misses out the wonderful use of language which the old-world cultivated.
Good article. Would have been even better with more specific examples. That is, books like are enduring classics because the themes of totalitarianism, propaganda, media-control, and more, are almost always relevant to the present.
In my schooldays those who were fortunate to study these works usually went to boarding schools and came from a different social class. These became classics for me some forty years later. I continue to read these works simply for enjoyment and relevance as they are timeless. Intimidation no longer exists in my mind as I can appreciate them for the works they are and form my own opinion. The classics are an important collection ever evolving culture throughout the ages. They act to spell out how culture has changed and why it is in the current state it is.
Reading British literature classics such as Conrad or the likes may not explain early African culture but it can most certainly help readers to gain a more in depth understanding of our modern western world. I had just stepped in and taken over from another substitute teacher, and the students, having had several subs in a short period of time, were about done with school…and it was only October. My principal came in one day and told the students they simply needed to read it to graduate, that she hated it in high school, too, and that it made no sense to her back then, either.
I was appalled! I explained to them, because they did not know, that Canterbury was a real place, as was Thomas a Becket a real historical figure. We did an in depth character study and compared the pilgrims to people we knew in real life. I explained how when we read difficult-to-understand texts, we need to learn to be resourceful. What do you do? Look at the footnotes provided, use a dictionary, Google it for crying out loud! Be resourceful. I often urged them to practice reading a section of lines and moving into groups to break it apart and discuss what it meant.
0コメント